Beach Day

Today wasa big day for the Winter Family. In the morning we went to the beach, in the afternoon, I took the girls to a ballet recital; they didn't perform, just we got free tickets from a friend, and in the evening we went to a summer festival at the local playground.

The beach was great. The Winters are not big beach going people, but I think we're becoming fast. We went to Kaike beach, probably the most well known and popular near Yonago. It's only five minutes away. We were there from 8-10 a.m. Everyone had fun. We brought a net and some buckets and caught a lot of little crabs and fish. I brought them home and put them in the case that the frogs used to be in. I put a piece of broken cement in the tank so the crabs can crawl above the waterline. I threw some seaweed in there too. We caught the crabs on the big gaudy looking tetrapods you can see in the background of the pictures. You can see those tetrapods as wave breakers all over the coasts in Japan. They look like giant jacks.

Junko and I have traditionally prefered the mountains, but there's a real energy to be felt at the beach. The mountains are cool, dark and green, soothing, sometimes holy. But the beach is bright, sunny, and hot. It dries you out and purifies you. It's like the song, "I've been through the dessert on a horse with no name. In the dessert, you can remember your name." It also remids me of a scene in one of our favorite Japanese TV dramas from twenty years ago, "Kita no Kuni Kara" (From the Norh Country). They talked about the difference between the personalities of fisherman and farmers. The farmer works with the earth and it's cycles, his personality is gentle and patient, but a fisherman makes his life by the sea. The sea is wild and unpredictable, it's like a battle and a fisherman's personality is wild and forceful. The sea makes him that way. Basically, we can't wait to go back. Junko and the girls are fine, but as expected, I'm pretty red. It' not bad, though. It only stings a little around my ankles. I need to get more sun, build up my tolerance. Actually, tomorrow is a national holiday, "Umi no Hi" (Sea Day). It's a time when everyone goes to the beach. I want to go, but maybe I should give my body a little time to heal, first.We're lucky to live here. We've got both mountains and the beach within minutes.